Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Veritas Hominum ❯ Homecoming ( Chapter 2 )

Homecoming

 

“I'm right here, Ben, you don't have to yell,” Winry admonished, leaning on the doorframe.

 

“You have a visitor,” he said. Ben motioned to the person behind him. He turned out of the way and what she saw stopped her breath.

 

Edward Elric was standing on the walk to her house.

 

She let her eyes drink him in: his brown coat was shabby and poorly made, and he wore his bright blond hair in a ponytail instead of the braid she remembered. He was taller now, taller than her, in fact. She had to look up at him, which is something she'd never really thought she'd ever have to do. There was something deep and painful in his eyes, as if that burden he'd been carrying around since his brother had lost his body had only grown larger over the past fifteen years. He must not know then…

 

Her eyes narrowed as the condition of his automail arm and leg caught her eye. They were clearly no longer functioning.

 

She snapped her head back up to look at him. He was looking at her with a sheepish look, as if he was unsure of what to say. Before she could stop herself, she blurted out: “Don't tell me you've just come back for a repair.”

 

He looked at her with a sad smile before lowering his gaze to the ground. “No, I haven't.”

 

His voice changed. It's much deeper than it used to be.

 

Winry hesitantly took a few steps towards him, “Is it really you?” She really didn't want to be wrong. She took another step, “Ed?”

 

He lifted his head and caught her questioning gaze. His eyes shone with repressed tears of happiness, as if he couldn't believe he was really there either. He very slowly nodded his head.

 

She had the sudden desire to reach out, touch him; validate his existence in her world. It had been so long, so long. She needed to know that he was really here, in the flesh, and not one of her daydreams.

 

“Ed, I…” She tried to step forward and tripped.

 

“Winry!” Ben cried out, but Ed's arms - one metal, one flesh - reached out, quick as lighting, to catch her before she hit the ground. She breathed in his scent - uniquely Ed - and sighed before pulling away. He almost looked sad to see her go.

 

Smiling warmly, she said, “I don't remember you being this affectionate.”

 

Ed laughed. “A lot's changed since the last time I saw you, Winry.”

 

“I also don't remember you being this tall.”

 

He shot her a dark look. She laughed lightly. “Still the same Ed.”

 

“At least when it comes to people poking fun at me about my height,” he replied.

 

The familiar anger she'd felt time and time again over the years he'd been missing flared again and she could see him brace himself for what he knew was coming.

 

Poking her finger into his stomach, she said, “And where the hell have you been the past fifteen years, Edward Elric?”

 

Ed flinched, “It's a long story, Winry…”